Olympic Commercials Medal Count

The NYT chimes in with it's medal count on commercials from the Olympics and I've got a few bones to pick with their choices. Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

First, a glaring mistake: They forgot to include Nike, which in my opinion had some of the best commercials that aired.

My favorite is "Courage"


There's also this one with Marvin Gaye's national anthem and the USA Basketball Team:


So on to the other companies:

Anheuser-Bush:
Justin's score: 2 (of 10) NYT "Tin" (as in worse than bronze, but not as bad as lead)
I don't want to see old Superbowl commercials eight months later. I'm also sick of the re-branding of Michelob. First it was low carbs, now it's craft brew. I still don't care.

AT&T:
Justin's score: 3, NYT: Tin
Mundane, ordinary ads. Nothing to remember. At least they were new, though.

Coca-Cola:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
The Coke side of life animated ads continue to impress me. I agree with the NYT on this one.



Exxon Mobil:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Tin
I'm sorry, but corporations like this need to put their money where their mouth is before I'm going to listen to this crap. You know what would work better than these commercials? How about actually donating $1billion or more to curing diseases or how about developing an alternative to oil. Obsolete yourself before someone else does. There's a lesson to be learned there (look at Kodak if you need proof).

GE:
Justin's score: 5, NYT: Gold
This is a mixed bag. I hated the discus tossing Greek commercial (for the execution, not the message) and liked the clumsy Chinese romance spot.

GM:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Without sidetracking onto a rant, I'll just say this: it's great that the Chevy Volt is coming out in 2010, but wouldn't it have been even better if GM had the foresight to push alternative vehicles before we demanded them? (*cough* Prius)

Lenovo:
Justin's score: 8, NYT: Gold
Funny stuff. And not re-run 500 million times. Good work.



McDonalds:
Justin's score: 0, NYT: Lead
Olympic athletes do not eat McDonalds on a regular basis. Find a new message or STFU.

United Airlines:
Justin's score: 4, NYT: Gold
Frickin' bizzare. I had no idea what I was watching the first time I saw the sea orchestra one. The commercials are OK, but honestly United is a shit airline. I'd be happier if they put that money to use reducing asinine fees.

Visa:
Justin's score: 9, NYT: Gold
These were great. A common gold-tint, fantastic VO by Morgan Freeman and a message we can get behind (Go World). Outside of the Nike ads (which really struck a chord with me) these were my favorite.


On a side note, why did the NYT only hand out gold, tin and lead medals? Why not stick with silver and bronze? At first I thought they added those two onto the existing Olympic medal progression, but no, they just changed them up.

Marmite Snacks: YukYum

I admire the cleverness behind these ads from the UK. Tilt your head to see what I mean. The line "You'll either love them or hate them" is a nice touch too. While not awe-inspiring, it makes me want to try one of these snacks. After all, I'll either love it or hate it. (via Coloribus)

Evolve Devolve

Due to some mechanical difficulties I won't be able to make it down to Denver to see the craziness that is the DNC. The part that bums me out the most is missing out on the Manifest Hope gallery. The best I can do is visit Obey Giant and check out some work from Shepard Fairey, who I am apparently way behind in totally adoring. The image above is called Evolve Devolve and it's my new favorite. I think it's great how such a simple image can say so much.

UPDATE: View the Manifest Hope Gallery Online Here

Zeus Jones Upgrades Their Site

Zeus Jones of Minneapolis is kicking it up a notch in the agency website department. Their new site features live feeds (twitter, delicious, etc) from employees, something called "From the Head of Zeus Jones", and basically a whole bunch of information and fun stuff that is putting most other agency sites to shame. Agencies take note: no flash intro or lengthy mission / vision statements. Rather it's a real time look into the agency along with a source of some interesting info about Zeus Jones that you'd expect on a site. In other words, I actually want to come back from time to time to check it out and see what's changed.
(via AdFreak)

Spicy Work for Tabasco

Every time I see another Tabasco ad I'm not sure whether I love it or hate it. They seem so obvious, but yet smart in a way. Maybe that's what makes 'em great. (via Coloribus)

Got tickets to the gun show?

Modernista! does. Their rolling out this billboard as part of a campaign to educate people about the gun show loophole. What is the gun show loophole? I'm glad you asked. It's a loophole in the law that allows people to buy guns at a gun show without an ID or background check like you would normally go through at a regular dealer.

Also, look for this flyer below on the streets of Denver during the DNC. I'll keep my eyes peeled for one "in the wild" next week.
(via Adrants)

Change The Thought Posters

Looking for something awesome to hang on the wall? Look no further than Change the Thought's poster collection, now for sale. Each print is hand signed and numbered, so you're getting a personal piece of greatness. So quit reading this and go buy one now. (also check out the t-shirts, at the time of this post there was a sale on that made select shirts $10 if you bought 2)

Up Late TV

You're going to like this. Check out www.upl8.tv It's a continuous feed of random youtube clips. The only option you have is to hit spacebar to switch to the next video (although you can double click the video itself to bring it up in youtube). You can get some pretty random stuff. It feels like DIY Robot Chicken that's a little more miss than hit. In any case, it'll keep you occupied for a while and maybe help you get over some writers block.

Enter the Denver 50... or die!

Okay, so maybe you won't die, but if you don't enter you won't win either. So check out this sweet promo from Citizen Pictures then hop over to The New Denver Ad Club to enter. Deadline is August 22nd.

It's just a bronze

My obligatory Olympics post:



(via Adverganza)

Lasik Before and After

Smart.

(via Coloribus)

Nike: Courage

It's still possible for advertising to inspire:



(via Dear Jane Sample)

Now you know

Get all your unnecessary knowledge here.

The biggest glass of Guinness ever

The biggest glass of Guinness is truly alive inside. See the commercial here. There's probably about a million more applications of this idea for Guinness and just like I enjoy a good pint, I'm enjoying theses ads.